In The Garden
by EspeonAngel
Summary: A Songfic to William Elric's life and death told by Dante.


**A/N: **Man, I'm on a roll! My second story the day after I uploaded B! I'm so proud of myself!! Well, here's a Fullmetal Alchemist story deicated to Dante and her son, William. I hope you enjoy!! Reviews will help me going ..

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing from Fullmetal Alchemist except the milk. It belongs to Hiromu Arakawa-sensei (creator and artist), no not the milk...And the song In The Garden belongs to Dolores O'Riordan. I highly recommend you listen to this song, it is very good!

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I sighed, frustrated, as I lifted my hands to my temples, massaging them, my elbows resting on the table next to the wretched alchemy book. It served no purpose to me. It did not include any factual piece of information on the subject I needed. No. There _was_ no book on what I needed, and yet, I still looked. Searching frantically for the short two words in any book I could get my hands on. I needed just _one more clue_. A little hint that showed I was not wrong. A…_message_-If you want to call it that-that could send me on the right path once more.

I needed a book on _Human Transmutation_.

_**I see you playing in the garden**__** outside my window (Oh, oh, oh)**_

I turned my head to the side, looking out the window and into the garden, as I heard children playing and laughing.

Ugh. _Children_. How I _hated_ them. It was repulsing just _thinking_ that, at one time, I was one. But that was a long time ago. So long, I could hardly remember.

My eyes droned on, watching the children playing a kind of game. One in which about four or five children-they were all girls-formed a human chain, in front of all the other children who were waiting in a line. They seemed to chant something, I couldn't quite catch it, and a child would run toward the girls that formed the chain, and ram itself against them. Apparently, the object of the game was to break the human chain-which the child failed to do and resulted in it falling on its back and the rest of the children laughing. It remained a mystery to me what happened if a child _did_ break through the chain, seeing as after a while none of them did.

I started to get bored, so I turned my attention back to the damned book. Until that is, I _heard_ what the children were chanting.

"_Red rover, red rover! William come on over!"_

My half-closed, half-bored eyes shot open. William? _My_ William? I turned my head to the side so fast, I could have sworn I heard it crack.

And there he was. The light-blonde haired child was very much there.

_**You're like your father, I see right through you **_

He was running, faster than any of the other children had, toward the human chain, which still had not been broken.

Putting his hands in an arrow in front of him while running, he cut right through the center of the chain and, instead of him falling down-like all the other children had-, the entire human chain fell down, screaming while they did so.

He cut through them, just like Hoenheim would soon cut through me. But, no matter.

I chuckled a little as I noticed that, while none of the other children were able to, William had knocked those girls down with such ease, it made me a little proud. And those girls were much older than him, about 12 or 13, while little William was a mere 7 years old.

_**Just like your father, I thought I knew you (Oh, oh, oh, oh)**_

That pride, though, vanished when William helped the girl who was in the center-whom he had fallen on top of-up. The girl then pushed him back, causing William to fall on his back, and the girl proceeded by balling her hands into fists and shouting and yelling at him. I noticed the girl's dress was dirty. It wasn't dirty before she had fallen, in fact, it had looked brand new. That must have been the reason why she was angry.

What had me angry, though, was when William apologized and said "Isn't that the point of the game?" all the while retaining a melancholy face with his eyes closed and a fake smile plastered on his face.

I gritted my teeth in rage as I watched him. How dare he!? The William I knew would have stood back up and pushed her down for pushing him.

My face suddenly went back to a melancholic façade. No. I suppose, I _didn't_ know who William was. I didn't know William _in general_.

_**It's a panic in paradise**_

Four years later, late at night, I was panicking. There wasn't a _single book_ about _Human-fucking-Transmutation_. Every experiment I had used so far was a failure, not that it was a surprise, I didn't know the full details. I didn't know the equation. I was clawing at my head, pulling my hair, biting my tongue. No.

I had to calm down. William and Hoenheim were well asleep, but I could still wake them up. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, the ritual that always controlled my wrath. My eyes darted to the stairs that led to the rooms. It would be a good idea to check, just to be safe.

And then, low-and-behold, when I opened the door to William's room, I saw him, sitting there on his bed, the candle on his nightstand lit, reading a book. Not only any book. It was _the_ book. _The_ book I had searched for years and years. _The_ book that had made my heart stop. _The_ book that told me _everything I needed to know about Human Transmutation_, was in the hands of my 11 year old son.

"Where'd you get that?" I hissed at him, not even bothering to hide my malicious joy to my _11 year old son_ that was _crying_.

He didn't reply. He shut the book with a slam, his bangs concealing his eyes, and threw it at my feet, turning his head away from me, to the window, his hands calmly on his lap. I knew it was different, though. He wasn't suppressing tears anymore. He was suppressing _envy_. Envy at the book that had separated me from him his entire life. Envy at the book that I cared for it much more than him. But I _didn't even care_.

A wicked grin spread across my face, a grin so malicious that did not match with this delicate and pretty face, as I bent down and picked up the book.

"It's a gift."

I looked up at William. His voice was hoarse and shaking. Shaking from suppressing his envy, his wrath.

"That's the book you wanted, right?" He snapped, I could have sworn he had bitten down on his tongue hard, "That's that book that you'd trade me for, right?"

A more appropriate, smaller grin graced my face.

"This is that _very_ book, William."

_**It's a panic, it's in paradise**_

Seven years later, when William was eighteen, the same grin that I had on when I picked up the very book that caused his very demise contorted my lips again when I poisoned him with mercury.

It was a very simple task, really. We started hating each other, just so very much. He even started to see his father, the man who was his idol, in a dimmer light. It came as no surprise, nor care, to me. I was busy droning over the book, taking it in as though it were the only thing that kept me clinging to life. Each night in bed, Hoenheim would plead me to put the book down and sleep, in which I'd respond by glaring at him. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep him off my case.

But, my greatest blissful moment, was when I was staring down at William's body which was sprawled out on the floor, still tangled with the sheets from his bed when he fell, and just watching his breath come labored and shortening gasps erupting from his throat.

Oh, yes. Just pure bliss.

Then, with that wicked grin on my face, the grin that had appeared only once before, I said my goodbyes to my _one_ _and only eighteen year old son_.

"Goodbye," I hissed as his eyes were almost fully closed, "Envy."

_**(Round, and round, and round, and round, and round)**_

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**A/N: **I actually really liked this one. I guess my stories are only good when I spend less than a day writing them, since this one and B were done in, I think, two or three hours...Well, R & R, please!! And I hope you liked it! I don't know why I picked _Red Rover _as the game the kids played, I guess I needed a game that would include strength and speed, and this one fitted in nicely with the stroy so, bam! Oh, and thank you to all of you who reviewed on my first creation, B, the first and second day it was submitted! This is dedicated to you Kanki Youji, ItsukoLawliet, PenArtist10000, and Queen of Disturbia for your positive reviews and everything else you did. Thank you, again!


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